CONNECTING THE DOTS

DRUG USE DOWN SO KEEP DRUG WAR GOING

After the first 20 interviews with my brother Police Officer and
Detective Howard Wooldridge of Lansing, Michigan (retired) concerning the “War
on Drugs”, thousands of readers responded.U.S. taxpayers do not understand the incredible deception perpetrated on
them by the Drug War.You might even
term it a “racket” by those who stand in the power corridors of Washington, DC.

“We are winning the War on Drugs because drug
use is down,” said Officer Howard Wooldridge. “That statement by hundreds of
police chiefs, sheriffs and narcotics officers has been repeated thousands
of times in the past 40 years of Drug Prohibition. Have you
noticed that drug use, always going down, is the ONLY aspect about policy they
use to convince us to pony up another $70 billion each year to keep
‘winning.’ What they never want to talk about are topics like drug
overdose doubling in the past ten years, drug availability is at an all-time
record for ease of buying, the funding of terrorists with drug profits, Mexico
is a river of blood and dysfunction, the dramatic rise in corruption of US law
enforcement at the border, etc. Why does my profession only talk
about drug use? Because that is all they have. And even
there, they must play with the numbers to look good.

“Ron Brooks, President of the National
Narcotics Officers Association Coalition, is often on debate panels and always
tells the public that law enforcement is winning the War on Drugs.
How? Drug use is down 70% from 1979 he proudly trumpeted on a John
Stossel (Fox News) program recently. Of course, if you look at use
rates since about 1988, it has decreased only a few points. If one
takes into consideration the increase in legal drugs like the heroin substitute
Oxycontin, etc, drug use/abuse is steady to increasing. Lies,
Damned Lies and Statistics.”

ENDLESS WINNING OF THE DRUG WAR FOR 40 YEARS:
DRUGS STILL AVAILABLE TO YOUNG, OLD AND EVERYONE IN 2010

“We have all heard, read or seen how this
works,” said Wooldridge. “The Drug Czar every year has proudly announced for
example that marijuana use by 8th graders was down six per cent last
year. The fact that 12th graders increased marijuana use by 10
per cent is buried in the back of the report. In this fashion the
Prohibition Crowd distorts the real picture. It only highlights
something positive, never willingly admitting for example that Ecstasy use
skyrocketed a few years ago, or that crack use went up dramatically in
the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“On a radio talk show this month I debated
the policy of drug prohibition with States Attorney Charlie Smith (chief
prosecutor of Frederick County, MD). Only a few minutes into
a spirited debate where I had mentioned how easily young people could buy
drugs, Smith spoke of drugs being destructive and drug use was down. When
I mentioned that even the DEA admits that “drugs are readily available to
America’s youth,” Smith countered that I wanted to make sex legal for seven
year old children. Do you also see a pattern here? As soon as
the Prohibition Crowd hears words they don’t like and can’t rebut, they use the
old ‘let’s scare the heck of the audience’ with a claim that the
anti-prohibition crowd wants to legalize sex with children or legalize child
abuse. And it still works with some but most now see thru the
tactics of the Drug Warriors.

“Last month in the hallway of the Heritage
Foundation, I ran into Ron Brooks, chief lobbyist for the nation’s 69,000
narcotics officers (one cop in 12 is a narcotics officer). He
smugly stated that my organization only had a few thousand members vs his
59,000 strong organization. I countered that a solid poll had just
shown that 22 percent of all active duty cops would legalize, regulate and tax
marijuana. This percentage meant about 225,00 cops feel like I do.
Per the same poll, a majority of cops felt that marijuana should be just a
ticket, not an arrest. I told him that he and the narcs favored
prohibition because it was a big, overtime check and job security.
He became upset and stormed off.”

YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE
TIME AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS

“So what numbers can you ‘hang your hat on?”
asked Wooldridge. “In 2005 our federal government reported these sobering
numbers: One - 110 million Americans had tried an illicit drug at least once.
Two – 35,000,000 had used an illicit drug the previous year. More
importantly, ask yourself what is the most crucial question for you and your
children. Is it how much has drug use has gone up or down or how easy is
it for your kids to buy drugs from marijuana to heroin. Of course
it is drug availability which is the crucial question and that is why the
Prohibition Crowd never, ever wants to discuss that aspect.

“Drug Prohibition will be repealed when a
majority understand its destructive effects AND tell their
politicians. Help your family by re-directing police time towards
public safety, not personal safety. Going after Willie Nelson smoking
marijuana on his back porch is NOT making America safer. Silence
here means politicians will keep voting billions to feed the police drug
machine.”

Today, my brother Howard Wooldridge heads up a task force in Washington,
DC to educate and enlighten congressmen at the highest levels.He works for a better future for all
Americans.He can be reached at:Education Specialist, www.citizensopposingprohibition.org ,
Washington, DC.He speaks at colleges,
political clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs across America.He engages citizens around the country to
bring an end to the Drug War.Check out
the web site and join.Book Wooldridge
in your state! Wooldridge also presents at political conferences in Washington.
Howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org

“The mission of COP is to reduce the multitude of
unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to
lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately
ending drug prohibition.

“Envision
a country which employs the principles of personal responsibility, personal
freedom and limited/effective government toward marijuana,” Officer Wooldridge
said. “I see a growing respect for the police, as they stop intruding into the
decisions of adults, made in the privacy of their castles.Teens find it as hard to buy pot as
beer.Fewer teens use it because it lost
its glamour.Imagine a land where the
deadly DUI and reckless drivers kill far fewer, as officers focus on them, not
the next pot bust.Envision detectives
arresting more child predators as they abandon the time spent arresting someone
selling pot to an adult.All this
becomes possible, when America becomes wiser and abandons the prohibition
approach to marijuana.”

Frosty
Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South
Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to
border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens,
Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what
you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges.
He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.comHe is the author of:America
on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies: 1 888 280 7715